Royal Society Publishing photography competition 2018 winners

The Royal Society’s annual photography competition celebrates ‘the power of photography to capture science in its many forms’

Main image:
The winner of the ecology and environmental science category: Waxwing and Rowanberries in the Snow, by Alwin Hardenbol.
Photograph: Alwin Hardenbol/Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2018

Wed 5 Dec 2018 02.00 EST
Last modified on Thu 6 Dec 2018 03.27 EST

Overall winner and astronomy winner: Three Diamonds in the Sky by Petr Horálek. When a solar eclipse started in November 2013 (on the left side of the image), there were two “diamond ring” solar flares, which was unusual. The magnitude of coverage from Pakwero, Uganda, was just 1.00259, which means the sun was only just covered and light could shine through two parts of the lunar limb

Astronomy runner-up: The Orion Nebula by Bernard Miller. An image of the Orion nebula processed with a six-filter colour mapping process. The process combines data from six filters (red, green, blue, Ha, SII and OIII). The image is a combination of over 39 hours of exposure over a span of six weeks at Dark Sky New Mexico, USA

Behaviour winner: Courting Royals: two royal terns in courtship display by Kristian Bell. Another beautiful morning on a beautiful beach on the Gulf Coast of Florida seemed to prompt these two royal terns to commence an intricate courtship dance. The photograph was taken with a Canon 300mm lens and 2x extender

Behaviour runner-up: Baby on Board by Anton Sorokin. Parental care is a behaviour associated with birds and mammals, but some amphibians are devoted parents, such as the mimic poison frog (
Ranitomeya imitator), which exhibits obligate biparental care. Here, the male transports the tadpole on his back to a pool of water

Earth science winner: Cappadocia, Turkey: Born of Fire, Earth, Air and Water by Katharine Cashman. This photograph highlights the volcanic landscape of Cappadocia, Turkey. It was created by a volcanic eruption (fire), is made of volcanic ash (earth) and has been sculpted by wind and water. The view is from a hot air balloon

Earth science runner-up: Colossus by Alejandro Roman Gonzalez. The shadow of Mount Teide in Tenerife at sunset towers over the Slooh Teide observatory. The sea of clouds shrouded the landscape at lower altitude. The colours in the sky are due to the reflection of the different wavelengths of the white light as the sun sinks below the horizon

Ecology and environmental science winner: Waxwing and Rowanberries in the Snow by Alwin Hardenbol. Bohemian waxwings (
Bombycilla garrulus) lust after rowanberries in winter. This one came to the trees outside the photographer’s office in Finland

Micro-imaging winner: Going round and round by Leandro Lemgruber. At the University of Glasgow’s Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, one research group studies the exploitation of the host’s own immune system by helminth parasites. The group uses a rodent parasite,
Heligmosomoides polygyrus, which inhabits the intestinal space of its host and coils around the intestinal villi